The Department of Justice asked a federal court to strike down New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s directive barring federal immigration agents from nonpublic areas of state property.
The department filed a lawsuit on Monday claiming Sherrill’s Feb. 11 executive order preempts the Trump administration from enforcing immigration laws and discriminates against federal agents.
Sherrill’s executive order states that immigration agents may still access areas of state property open to the public and nonpublic areas if they have a judicial warrant. Monday’s lawsuit against Sherrill is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by DOJ against “illegal sanctuary city policies” in New York, Minnesota and Los Angeles.
“Federal agents are risking their lives to keep New Jersey citizens safe, and yet New Jersey’s leaders are enacting policies designed to obstruct and endanger law enforcement,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Tuesday press release announcing the suit. “States may not deliberately interfere with our efforts to remove illegal aliens and arrest criminals — New Jersey’s sanctuary policies will not stand.”
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Sherrill criticized the immigration agents’ training during a press conference Tuesday morning, where she was asked about the lawsuit.
“The federal government needs to be focused on right now instead of attacking states like New Jersey working to keep people safe, is actually training their ICE agents with some modicum of training like any law enforcement officer in the state of New Jersey would have, so that they can operate better and more safely,” the governor said.
Blocking access to nonpublic areas is one of the strategies states and local governments have deployed to curb aggressive deportation surges in their jurisdictions.
“The Executive Order singles out federal immigration officials, expressly and implicitly,
for unfavorable and uncooperative treatment when no other member of the public or law
enforcement is so treated,” the lawsuit states. “This is an undue and burdensome regulation specifically aimed at impeding the Federal Government.”
The federal government succeeded in demonstrating that a California law discriminated against immigration agents. Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a California measure banning immigration officers from covering their faces because it did not also apply to state law enforcement, The Associated Press reported. However, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder upheld the state’s measure requiring law enforcement to wear agency and badge numbers.
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